To Err is human
by PhDelicious
Summary: Insights into the relationship of Six and Gaius and their hallucinations. Spanning the end of season 2, Downloaded and Lay Down Your Burdens, and the begining of season 3, Occupation and Precipice


**To Err is … human?  
**Battlestar Galactica (2004)  
**PhDelicious  
****Pairing:** Gaius/Six  
**Rating:** Teen

**Spoilers:** All aired episodes: through S3. Mainly "Downloaded", "Lay Down Your Burdens", "Occupation", and "Precipice"

**A/N:** This idea, in some form or other, has been haunting me since I saw "Downloaded" and "Lay down your Burdens". Thanks to everyone who has let me rant about my crazy Baltar/Six ideas and ScifiJoan for the beta.

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Caprica: Cylon Occupation: Day 270**

Six slumped into the plush chair in Sharon's living room and sighed. She could still hear the others arguing in the back of her mind about leaving Caprica. The chatter competed with the sounds of Sharon crying in the shower and she fought to block both out. It had been a long hard day. She ached all over from the bruises where chunks of the garage had collapsed on her and she wasn't sure whether they had played directly into the others' hands or not.

In the end, she supposed it didn't matter. She would do what was needed to get Gaius back and God's plan would work as He willed it. As usual her thoughts conjured him, or at least the illusion of him, into being.

"Murder is always the best way to start a peace movement." He toasted her mockingly before pushing himself away from the mantle and across the room towards her.

"I just needed her to…They wouldn't have listened to us if she'd…"

"…been there mocking every word even as it left that lying mouth of yours?" he sneered. "Instead you blame her death on the very people you're trying to convince them to forgive. Not working so well is it?"

Sometimes she wondered if he could hear the others through her. "I just needed some time. She'll be back in a couple of days."

"And that's the real problem isn't it? The same petty arguments over and over again because you can all remember everything that's ever happened to you. Every insult, every loss, every betrayal. You had better hope that 3 and 7 come around before she does. Otherwise that pretty face of yours will get you nowhere. Fame and gratitude or no."

His hand skimmed tauntingly down her cheek and neck before pulling her mouth to his. Somewhere in the distance the water stopped and the bathroom door opened. Gaius pulled back sharply.

"Ah, ah, ah…can't have the others knowing what you've done to me," he said as he vanished, leaving tears coursing down her cheeks.

Six tilted her head back and swiped, half-heartedly, at the tears. She needed Gaius back – the arrogantly brilliant scientist who had spent countless hours learning how to tease her body into shattering climax. The man she'd been learning to love. Not the broken fragment she'd bound to her in saving him from being destroyed with the rest of humanity.

**New Caprica: Day 200**

Gaius Baltar was bored and frustrated. Frustrated and bored. Sure, there were things he could and should be doing, but that hadn't ever motivated him before. He had no desire to read another one of Tyrol's whining memos on the lack of proper equipment or Adama's pompous refusals to send more supplies. He was the President of the Colonies. People were supposed to jump when he spoke, not ignore him except to make demands.

Why did they all seem to think that he suddenly had all the answers? He didn't know a frakking thing about handling workers unions and distributing supplies. It hadn't even been his idea to settle on this gods forsaken hunk of rock. It had been Her idea, and she had seduced him into it. Steel under soft words and silken skin.

"God has a plan for you Gaius. You will be a leader long remembered among the people if you do this Gaius. Believe Gaius."

She had pushed him into this and then abandoned him to the cold harsh reality of this wretched planet.

'Lay down your burdens'…what a crock! Even he knew that everyone's burdens had more than doubled since the settlement, including his.

Something was going to give soon and there was almost nothing he wouldn't do to avoid being in 'power' when it did. Because without her constantly forcing him on, Gaius knew he didn't belong in this job.

**New Caprica: Cylon Occupation: Day 1**

God! It pained her to see him sitting in the President's chair looking haggard and forlorn. She'd seen the shock on his face as she'd come on board with the others; caught his confusion when she'd named him. It had taken more effort that she had expected to restrain herself, to keep from going to him in front of the others. Now that they'd left, she couldn't stop herself from staring at him as he sat behind his desk, head buried in his hands.

"This is what we came all this way for?" His voice whispered in her ear, but he hadn't moved. "He's rather pathetic, if I do say so myself."

He stepped around her and sidled towards the desk.

"He didn't even try to negotiate. Just gave it all up without a moments thought. Pathetic!"

He stalked closer and inspected himself, circling completely around before hovering behind the chair.

"I suppose it's not really surprising, given that you stole his backbone two years ago."

Hands descended lightly on shoulders and the contrast between the Gaius Baltar she'd carried with her and the man he'd become broke her heart.

"I don't want to fight anymore Gaius," she said, unsure which she was addressing.

Two pairs of eyes lifted to hers, but only one voice replied, "That doesn't matter any longer does it? Just leave."

While the thought more aptly suited the specter that had been haunting her since the attack on Caprica, the tone, graveled and despairing, made it clear that it was the man who spoke.

Six hurried off of Colonial One.

**New Caprica: Cylon Occupation: Day 135**

Gaius Baltar was in shock. He was alive, at least for the time being. The same could not be said for the people whose death warrants he had just signed, but he couldn't concentrate on that at the moment. Too many other thoughts clamored in his brain. Memories he should not have flooded his senses.

Despite the fact that she had known him while the others hadn't, he had never connected the dots between the woman who had saved him from the end of the world, the bombshell of his fantasies, and the Six who had just sacrificed her life for his. He'd felt something change as she'd died in front of him. Even before she'd appeared beside him. It was as if something had slid home inside him, some missing piece returned.

Before he'd had time to process the change she'd appeared – perched on his desk in that slinky red dress just as she had so many times in the past. He'd signed the paper in a trance – the foreign part of him joining with her image in his self-preservation. Then once again she'd abandoned him to face reality on his own. Without even the whispered comfort of her usual mantra. Apparently this was not part of God's plan.

For some reason he didn't find it comforting to know that even the 'perfect' cylons could be so dramatically wrong.


End file.
